Medicare Rights Center

HELPLINES: Medicare Rights' expert staff and volunteers answered more than 31,700questions on its multilingual national helpline for people with Medicare, their families,and the professionals serving them. As part of this work, Medicare Rights provided over 10,758 counseling sessions devoted to appeals and other Medicare-related legal issues.

Policy: Medicare Rights carried the stories of the clients it serves to meetings ofpolicymakers and other stakeholders in New York and Washington, DC., and media placements totaled 467. Medicare Rights also led 220 presentations and trainings to translate Medicare policy into consumer-friendly language and circulated Medicare newsletters and other communications to a list of more than 120,000 readers.

EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH: Medicare Rights' expert print and online resources andtrainings, provided through Medicare Interactive (www.medicareinteractive.org), answered 2.8 million Medicare questions and empowered professionals across the country to better serve their own older clients and those with disabilities. As part of thiswork, Medicare Rights offers its training and certification services to Medicare counselors nationally through the State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) Technical Assistance Center and the Senior Medicare Patrol Resource Center.